Biodiversity News

RSS
702 stories
The Nilgiris hills in the southern Western Ghats. Image by Divya Kilikar/Mongabay.

A stairway from the ocean to the skies [Commentary]

C.P. Rajendran 29 Oct 2025
Salim Ali's first scientific paper was on the nesting of the baya or common weaverbird. His work is a testament to the fact that good science can rise from unexpected beginnings. Image by B. Vinoth.

A lifetime of watching birds with a pencil, paper and patience [Commentary]

R.J. Ranjit Daniels 28 Oct 2025
Cicadas begin calling when triggered by the first sunlight just before dawn. They even coordinate with each other just like particles in a magnet. Image by Rakesh Khanna.

Cicadas sing in sync as the sun rises

Debdutta Paul 27 Oct 2025
To find out how well the toads themselves recognise mating colour signals, researchers recorded the skin colours of toads gathered at a rock pool and fed the data into a computer model that simulated toad vision, revealing they could easily detect the contrast between yellow males and the brown females. Image by Susanne Stückler and Doris Preininger.

Male toads get a monsoon makeover to stand out from the crowd

Sandhya Sekar 23 Oct 2025

Global seabird records guide us where to look next

Kartik Chandramouli 16 Oct 2025
Women from Kibber village set up a camera trap on a steep slope in Spiti Valley during the state-wide snow leopard survey. Image courtesy of the Nature Conservation Foundation and Himachal Pradesh Forest Department.

In the high Himalayas, women and communities build a shared future for the snow leopard

Manish Chandra Mishra 15 Oct 2025
A dugong swims towards the surface of the waters around Neil island, Andaman and Nicobar. Image by Vardhan Patankar.

Heavy metal bioaccumulation weighs down dugongs

Phalguni Ranjan 14 Oct 2025
Even in fragmented areas, leopards managed to disperse, reflecting their ability to live close to humans and in varied habitats. Image by Shrushti Modi.

Large carnivores share the same forests but respond differently to fragmentation

Sneha Mahale 14 Oct 2025
Pallas's cat. The survey that captured the cat also shot images of the Brokpa herding community whose centuries-old pastoral traditions enable coexistence with wildlife. Image courtesy of WWF-India.

Survey finds wild cats at record heights

Nabarun Guha 7 Oct 2025

Looking at human-wildlife conflict through a data-first lens

Nikhil Sreekandan 7 Oct 2025
Trees thriving around flyovers in Hyderabad. Insufficient policy protection, incentives, and funding often undermine conservation efforts and sustainable management of trees outside forests. Image by Mohan Chandra Pargaien.

The expansion and conservation of trees outside forests has multi-fold benefits [Commentary]

Mohan Chandra Pargaien 6 Oct 2025
A tigress and her cub in Tadoba Andhari Tiger Reserve. In their earliest phase prior to dispersal, young tigers stayed within their natal ranges, close to their mothers’ territories. Image by Rohit Sharma via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Tracking tigers as they move from comfort zones to independence

Sneha Mahale 6 Oct 2025
Deepor Beel is Guwahati’s major stormwater storage basin, and is facing stress from unregulated urban runoff. Image by Arnie via Flickr (CC BY 2.0).

Algal blooms choke a wetland, threatening biodiversity and livelihoods

Barasha Das 29 Sep 2025
A field team member consults with a local landowner while demarcating the boundaries of a potential restoration site in the hills. Image by Aditya Pradhan.

In search of degraded forests for restoration [Commentary]

Aditya Pradhan 29 Sep 2025
A woman shows lemons growing oin her homestead garden in a tribal settlement in Cheeyampam. Image by Vipindas P.

How lemons have helped reclaim nutrition and support livelihoods [Commentary]

Vipindas P. 22 Sep 2025
A variety of sharks and rays caught in a trawler. Image by Imran Samad.

India’s nearshore fisheries overlap with shark and ray habitats

Rupsy Khurana 18 Sep 2025
A fishing cat in Sajnekhali Wildlife Sanctuary in the Sundarbans preys on a monitor lizard. Image by Soumyadip Santra.

Rare natural history moment of a fishing cat captured on camera

Nabarun Guha 17 Sep 2025
The brown forest bob (Scobura woolletti) was known in parts of Southeast Asia, and thought to be a rare sight in the Northeast. A 2010 study however revealed that the butterflies recorded in the Northeast was a different species, now named Scobura parawoolletti or Assam forest bob (seen in the photo). Image by Sarangapani Neog.

Sarangapani Neog on documenting butterflies in a sanctuary [Interview]

Barasha Das 12 Sep 2025

A city biodiversity evaluation spotlights the need to conserve urban natural resources

Simrin Sirur 9 Sep 2025
Mithuns in Roing in Lower Dibang Valley, Arunachal Pradesh. Image by Divya Kilikar/Mongabay.

Conflicted over attacks on mithuns, experts gun for hunting ban

Kasturi Das 9 Sep 2025